A section of State Street in downtown Bellingham will close overnight Wednesday, September 23 into early Thursday morning for a major film production, with permits pointing to a business connection to Tyler Perry Studios. The closure runs from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. Thursday, September 24, affecting the block between Holly and Chestnut streets. The production has also generated a wave of casting calls for local extras, with 15 active listings posted as of Monday, September 21.
What the Permits Show
A letter sent to nearby business owners identifies TPS Productions Services LLC as the permittee for the road closure. That company shares a registered business address in Atlanta with Tyler Perry Studios, though no official confirmation of the film's title or studio affiliation had been released as of Monday, September 21. Tyler Perry Studios is one of the most prolific film and television production operations in the United States, operating a massive campus in Atlanta where the filmmaker has produced dozens of features and television series. The use of a separate LLC for location productions outside the home studio campus is a standard industry practice, which is why the business registration connection is being treated as a strong indicator rather than a confirmed attribution.
Several casting calls posted online in recent days offer additional clues about the scale and nature of the production. The casting calls, listed on the Alessi Hartigan Casting website, include paid roles for firefighters on Thursday, September 24 and Monday, September 28, and paid dive bar extras on Friday, September 25. As of Monday, 15 separate casting listings were active. The search for firefighter extras and bar-scene extras fits a pattern consistent with a drama or action production rather than a comedy or documentary project, and the spread of shoot days across the week suggests a production that is deeply embedded in Bellingham locations rather than passing through for a single day.
The production has secured a closure of State Street between Holly and Chestnut streets, as well as the rear alley behind that block. Production vehicles will be parking on both sides of the street. The area outside the Shakedown, a well-known bar in downtown Bellingham, has been identified as part of the filming location, which aligns neatly with the casting call for dive bar extras. The Shakedown has been a fixture of Bellingham's late-night scene for years and occupies the kind of worn, atmospheric storefront that works well as a film backdrop without requiring significant set dressing.
What Downtown Visitors and Business Owners Should Know
The closure is an overnight one, running from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., which limits the disruption to foot traffic and daytime business operations in the immediate area. Most businesses in the Holly-Chestnut stretch of State Street would be approaching or past their normal closing time when the production begins. Parking spaces in the affected block will be restricted during production, so anyone planning to park near State Street and Holly late Wednesday night should plan for reduced availability in that area. Production vehicles parked on both sides of the street will take up spaces that would otherwise be accessible to bar patrons and late-night visitors.
Businesses on the block have already been notified through the letter from the production company. Nearby businesses that were not directly contacted but operate in the Holly-Chestnut corridor may see some secondary impact from production vehicle staging and crew activity in the area overnight. Film productions typically bring large numbers of crew members who need food, coffee, and other services during long overnight shoots, which can create some incidental economic activity for any nearby establishments that remain open.
This is not the first time downtown Bellingham has hosted film or television production. The city's architecture, its mix of brick-fronted storefronts, and its Pacific Northwest setting have made it an attractive stand-in for other locations in past projects. The covered walkways, the historic building stock along Holly Street, and the layered character of the downtown streetscape give directors and location scouts a range of visual options within a compact area. A major production of this scale, with multiple shoot days, a large casting call operation, and an overnight road closure, would represent a meaningful economic injection into the local hospitality and service economy during the production period.
How to Get Involved as an Extra
For Bellingham residents interested in appearing as background talent, the casting calls for the production are posted through Alessi Hartigan Casting. The roles currently open include firefighter extras for Thursday, September 24 and Monday, September 28 shoots, and dive bar extras for the Friday, September 25 shoot. These are paid positions, and the listings include details on how to submit your information for consideration. Background talent on film productions typically receive a day rate determined by union or production-specific agreements, and roles sometimes come with additional pay for wardrobe fittings or extended hours.
Casting calls for major productions typically fill quickly, particularly for specific types like firefighters, where the production may be looking for people with a particular physical type or the ability to handle equipment convincingly on screen. Residents who are interested should check the listings as soon as possible rather than waiting. The production appears to have multiple shoot days planned through at least the end of September, meaning additional casting opportunities may be added as the schedule develops and the production identifies gaps in its background talent roster.
Alessi Hartigan Casting is a Seattle-area casting agency that handles extras and supporting roles for film and television productions shooting in the Pacific Northwest. Their involvement in this production is consistent with how major studios sourcing local talent typically operate when working in Washington State, routing casting through established regional agencies rather than managing submissions directly.
For anyone walking or driving through downtown Bellingham on Wednesday night, the area near the Shakedown on State Street may look quite different with production lights, equipment, and crew in place. Film lighting setups for night exteriors are often dramatic and visible from several blocks away. The best approach is to give the production area space, as film sets require unobstructed lines of sight and safety buffer zones that can extend well beyond the immediately closed block. Pedestrians who want to observe the filming from a distance are generally welcome as long as they stay outside the barricaded perimeter and do not interfere with equipment or crew movement.
More information on Bellingham's permitting process for events and productions is available through the City of Bellingham. For context on recent developments in Bellingham's downtown area, coverage of the Salish Landing Park project shows how the city's central districts continue to evolve as new activity arrives.
